Persons who do not conform to societal expectations of appropriate gender behaviors have frequently been the target of violence, prejudice and discrimination. Such gender stigmatized persons often develop poor coping skills as result which often lead to poor health outcomes. Gender stigmatized persons have been specifically identified in previous research for being at HIV risk for infection or transmission of HIV due to risky sexual as well as drug injection behaviors. The proposed project seeks to develop and evaluate an HIV risk reduction intervention for gender stigmatized persons with abstinence, mutual monogamy and consistent condom use as desired outcomes. The research team will be working in close collaboration with a local non- profit community based organization that currently offers workshops and support groups for gender stigmatized persons. Empirical evidence for the effectiveness of interventions for this population is extremely limited and there are no current CDC evaluated interventions for this population. The intervention we propose will be theoretically grounded by 1) employing information-motivation-behavior model to examine risk taking behaviors; 2) use of motivational interviewing in the intervention coupled and 3) utilizing cognitive behavioral skills training. Therefore the proposed project seeks to reduce risky behaviors by developing an intervention that teaches individuals: 1) skills to deal with gender stigma and stress, 2) information about the strong links between coping with stress/stigma and risk behaviors, and 3) the benefits of self care through abstinence, mutual monogamy, consistent condom use and help seeking for other problems they may face. The proposed project will involve three phases: qualitative interviews with the target population to identify salient issues for intervention targets; focus groups to provide feedback and to tailor the intervention appropriately; and finally, implementation of the intervention, which will include pre and post test measures for evaluation purposes. Lastly, the staff of the local community based organization will play an instrumental role in development and implantation of this project in order to facilitate continuation of the intervention, if evaluated positively, at the end of the project period. [unreadable] [unreadable] [unreadable] [unreadable]